Apple’s Chief Design Officer Says It Took 5 Years Of Failure To Get The iPhone X Right

Apple’s new tenth anniversary edition iPhone X hits the stores in November, and it’s the company’s finest product yet. However, that feat didn’t come easily, with Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive saying it took five years of development to get to this point.

During an on stage interview at the New Yorker TechFest on Friday, Ive said the new button-less design was a process filled with failures and setbacks. “I mean, the phone we just announced a couple of weeks ago, the iPhone X, that technology is something we’d been working on for five years. And we had prototypes,” Ive said, talking about the iPhone X with its full-panel display and FaceID unlock.

“There’s a tendency, and of course there is, and I understand it, with the benefit of hindsight, all of it seems inevitable,” Ive said. “But for 99 percent of the time, it didn’t work for us. For the vast majority of the development cycle, all we had were things that failed. By definition, if they didn’t fail halfway through, then we’d be done.”

During the interview, Ive was even asked what kind of new technology he dreams about. Ive, however, refused to directly answer the question, likely for fear of giving away plans for future iPhones. He did mention that it’s because of the size and efficiency of current day silicon that his design team can dream big with what they want to do with the iPhone. “Some of the allowances, some of the opportunities are extraordinary,” he said.